All eras

The Chemistry and Pharmacology of Piper methysticum and Related Species

Alexander Shulgin's review of kava, Piper methysticum, covering Pacific preparation practices, pharmacological classification, and the chemistry of kavalactones and related Piper species.

An FBI FD-302 interview (July 1974) in which recaptured Timothy Leary decodes the coded correspondence from his September 1970 prison escape. Leary identifies the Brotherhood of Eternal Love as the Laguna Beach LSD collective 'Group', Michael Randall as 'M', attorney Michael Kennedy, fellow inmate William Bellinger, and the Weathermen as 'Consultants' who staged the escape.

A short Brazilian natural-products chemistry article confirming the double use of Virola theiodora bark in Yomanê hallucinogenic snuff and arrow poison from the Tototobi River region of Roraima.

An Inspector General memorandum and attached summary paper on CIA behavioral-drug programs from BLUEBIRD (1949) through OFTEN/CHICKWIT (1967-1973). It includes the Agency's account of Frank Olson's death after being surreptitiously dosed with LSD at Deep Creek Lake in November 1953.

Rockefeller Commission findings on CIA drug testing and domestic activities

The Rockefeller Commission's 1975 report was the first major presidential inquiry to put CIA drug experiments, including LSD-related episodes and the death of Frank Olson, into an official public account. It became a bridge between the commission investigation, the Church Committee, and the later Senate MKULTRA hearing.

Staff testimony by CIA chemist Sidney Gottlieb before the Church Committee on MKULTRA. Gottlieb discusses LSD training for intelligence officers and contract research, and confirms TSS had no informed-consent policy for contracted experiments.

Full Senate report including the chapter on chemical and biological agents

Book I of the Church Committee final report, Foreign and Military Intelligence, includes the committee's findings on CIA testing and use of chemical and biological agents. The full volume places MKULTRA and LSD-related experimentation within broader findings on covert action, intelligence oversight, and congressional accountability.

An Army Inspector General review of volunteer drug testing at Edgewood Arsenal and in Intelligence Corps LSD trials (1958-1960). It finds that volunteers in the Intelligence Corps LSD program did not receive informed consent before their first dose.

1977 Senate joint hearing on LSD, behavioral research, and CIA records

A joint Senate hearing on Project MKULTRA after CIA director Stansfield Turner informed Congress that financial records had surfaced for previously destroyed behavioral-research files. The hearing and appendices document LSD-related projects, agency recordkeeping, and congressional oversight of CIA human-subjects research.

The Drug Enforcement Administration's order placing MDMA in Schedule I on an emergency basis from July 1, 1985, using powers Congress had given it the year before for so-called designer drugs. The notice cites rising recreational use, promotional parties, and a new rat study showing that the related drug MDA destroyed serotonin nerve terminals. It was issued while Judge Francis L. Young's hearings on permanent scheduling were still under way. Full text of the notice.

After seventeen days of hearings, Administrative Law Judge Francis L. Young recommends placing MDMA in Schedule III rather than Schedule I. He finds currently accepted medical use and accepted safety for medical supervision based on psychiatrists' testimony, animal lethality studies, and clinical experience with supervised psychotherapy.

The First Circuit vacates the DEA's rule placing MDMA in Schedule I, holding the Administrator's interpretation of 'accepted medical use' was contrary to Congress's intent. Dr. Grinspoon, a Harvard psychiatrist seeking to research MDMA therapeutically, brought the appeal after the Administrator overruled the ALJ's Schedule III recommendation.

The Supreme Court holds that Oregon may deny unemployment benefits to two Native American Church members dismissed for sacramental peyote use, since a neutral criminal drug law requires no religious exemption. Blackmun dissents.

Congress restored a nationwide exemption for the ceremonial use of peyote by Indians in connection with traditional religions. The statute carves out exceptions for prison, military, and safety-sensitive positions.

An Update (NIDA Research Monograph 146)

Proceedings of a 1992 NIDA technical review on hallucinogen research, prompted by rising LSD use among teenagers. Includes Rick Strassman's account of the regulatory process (IRB, DEA, FDA) for his DMT study, the first human hallucinogen study approved since the early 1970s.

Chief Justice Roberts holds the federal government failed to show a compelling interest justifying its ban on the Uniao do Vegetal church's sacramental use of hoasca (ayahuasca tea with DMT) under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The Court rejects the UN Convention argument and upholds the peyote precedent for religious exemptions to the Controlled Substances Act.

A federal court ruling applying Gonzales v. O Centro to the Santo Daime church in Oregon, granting the right to import and drink ayahuasca under RFRA. Judge Panner's findings describe the religion's origins, ritual, physiological effects, and the government's health and diversion evidence.

Oregon's 2020 ballot measure created the first US state-licensed psilocybin services program. The findings cite FDA's breakthrough-therapy designation for depression, and the statute establishes licensed service centers and facilitators rather than unsupervised legalization.

The transcript of the FDA advisory committee that reviewed Lykos Therapeutics' application for MDMA-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder. Hosted here are the chair's opening of the committee questions and the two votes: 2 to 9 against finding the drug effective, and 1 to 10 against finding that its benefits outweighed its risks, with each member's stated reasons. Members cited functional unblinding, expectation bias, the many trial participants who had used MDMA before, and reports of misconduct. The FDA declined to approve the application in August 2024.

Considerations for Clinical Investigations (Guidance for Industry)

FDA guidance (July 2026) for sponsors developing psychedelics—5-HT2A agonists including psilocybin and LSD, plus MDMA—as approved medicines. It addresses the regulatory pathway for Schedule I drugs in clinical trials and identifies methodological challenges: perceptual effects complicate blinding ('functional unblinding'), and the independent contribution of psychotherapy paired with dosing remains uncharacterized.